Ted Cruz’s New Book Blisters Mitch McConnell and Other Members of the RINO Surrender Caucus

“During my time in the Senate, I’ve been amazed how many senators pose one way in public — as fiscal conservatives or staunch tea party supporters — and then in private do little or nothing to advance those principles,” Cruz says in his new book, “A Time for Truth.”

... The Texas senator titled the first chapter of his book “Mendacity,” and spends its pages cataloging the ways Senate Republicans betrayed him and the conservative movement he stands for.

“[O]ne particular Politico reporter often seems like he is Mitch McConnell’s press secretary; nearly every attack from leadership gets echoed and amplified in his stories.”

... The chapter casts Mitch McConnell as its chief villain, accusing the Senate Majority Leader of cowering in fights over the debt ceiling and Obamacare, too afraid of bad headlines from the liberal media to stand up for conservative principles. But McConnell isn’t portrayed as merely a coward — he’s also a tyrant, who threatens Cruz with media smears and withheld funding unless he, too, capitulates to the liberal agenda.

“The Republican leadership’s attacks are amplified and made more effective by using friendly media outlets,” Cruz wrote. “When leadership is displeased, they place hit pieces with journalists only too happy to cooperate. Indeed, so much so that one particular Politico reporter often seems like he is Mitch McConnell’s press secretary; nearly every attack from leadership gets echoed and amplified in his stories.”

... While Cruz focuses the brunt of his wrath on McConnell, he saves some ire for Kentucky’s other senator — Rand Paul, one of Cruz’s rivals for the GOP nomination in 2016.

In September of 2013, Cruz tried to rally Republicans around a quixotic plan to deny the federal government any funding unless large portions of the Affordable Care Act were defunded. Cruz gave a 21-hour speech from the Senate floor in an attempt to inspire his colleagues. His effort gained support from Utah Sen. Mike Lee, but Paul proved “notably less helpful,” according to Cruz’s account.

... “My friend Rand Paul came to the Senate floor to ask questions that seemed deliberately designed to undermine our efforts,” he says in his book. “His questions echoed the skeptical attacks of Mitch McConnell, and I marveled that Rand had decided not to be with us in this fight.”

... “In the 2016 primary, you’re going to have 15 candidates up there going, ‘I’m conservative. No, no, I’m conservative,’” Cruz told NPR on Monday. “I think the question Republican primary voters should ask is, ‘When have you stood up against the Washington cartel? When have you stood up against leaders in our own party?’”

...in the opening chapter of his book, Cruz calls out McConnell and his GOP colleagues for “chicanery” by publicly opposing an increase in the borrowing limit while privately trying to let the debt ceiling increase in 2014 without their fingerprints. When he told a California GOP donor in 2014 about the debt ceiling dispute, Cruz recalls the donor saying repeatedly: “The bastards.”

...Cruz went after Manu Raju from Politico—a reporter who often pushes a narrative that GOP leadership in Washington likes. Raju is hardly the only such reporter who pushes the establishment line from the pages of Politico—Jake Sherman is another one, but he tends to operate more on the House side of things pushing whatever Speaker Rep. John Boehner wants to talk about on any given day—but he’s the one who has personally printed countless articles in which anonymous sources in Washington attack Cruz and conservatives on Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell’s behalf...

“All of those things were said by Republicans. And most of them were attributed to anonymous ‘senior GOP aides,’” Cruz writes, before exposing the actual process by which leadership uses publications like Politico and the Wall Street Journal to attempt to neutralize conservatism. In this paragraph, without putting his name but identifying him by citing one such article filled with Cruz scorn that makes it positively clear who he’s talking about, Cruz points to Politico’s Raju—and calls him “Sen. Mitch McConnell’s press secretary.” Cruz writes:

The Republican leadership’s attacks are amplified and made more effective by using friendly media outlets. When leadership is displeased, they place hit pieces with journalists only too happy to cooperate. Indeed, so much so that one particular Politico reporter often seems like he is Sen. Mitch McConnell’s press secretary; nearly every attack from leadership gets echoed and amplified in his stories. As this reporter noted after one Senate lunch (apparently without irony): ‘The closed‐door [Senate lunches] are supposed to be private . . . so senators interviewed for this article asked not to be named.’

The Texas Republican’s vice chairmanship of the party campaign committee was always a bit mysterious, and in his new book to be released Tuesday, Cruz contends that McConnell, the longtime Kentucky senator who faced perhaps the most vociferous tea party primary challenger of the year, said the NRSC would not be defending its own incumbents.

“When I mentioned to Mitch that if the NRSC had its way, every one of those four conservatives would have lost, he promised that the committee would stay out of primaries from here on out. He said he wanted to bring the tea party and the grassroots together with the GOP. I agreed with that goal and based on that commitment — to stay out of primaries — I signed up..."

"...But it soon became clear that the NRSC had every intention of supporting incumbents — in primaries — against conservative challengers across the country. And even in open races, it actively urged donors to give money to candidates opposing tea party conservatives,” Cruz said. “That didn’t sit right with me.”

To Anonymous above - Ted Cruz refused to support Mitch McConnell as Majority Leader in the senate. He is ONE of a number of elected conservative senators who refused to do so. Unfortunately, they were unable to prevent McConnell from being named "leader". They are not in the majority to overthrow McConnell. McConnell needs to be dealt with by his constituents who should vote him out of office and replace him. The senators who gave the corrupt McConnell the "majority leader" spot are all old entrenched "good ol' boys" who don't want to rock the boat . . . or, they were the young "newbies" who were probably threatened in some way or another, if they didn't fall in line. Ted is taking it to McConnell through his book because he knows there is no chance that McConnell will be called to step down and even if he is it will never happen. The good people of Kentucky will have to put Mitch out of commission where he can't harm America any more than he already has. It took enormous guts for Cruz to expose McConnell like he does in his book. He deserves major kudos for it because the retaliation will be never-ending.

Those of you who strive to put Cruz in a bad light are making fools of yourselves. Cruz supporters know his track record and where he stands and your lies and attacks on Ted don't fly. Have a nice day.

TED CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 2016 AND BEYOND